Tom Reedy and Tucker Curtis sit behind Nathan Davis in Raven’s
A Few Good Men.

Of course the script (and here’s the irony), completely lacks shades of grey when it comes to the wrongdoing. Lt. Col. Nathan Roy Jessup, the man who issued the orders that led to the brutal deed, is pretty much an unambiguous bastard. His arguments in court, justifying the action, don’t really hold water, at least not to a civilian crowd. Perhaps they’d ring differently if this production was playing to American soldiers stationed in Fallujah.

Still, A Few Good Men will play to civilians in the main, and in that context, Sorkin’s script has all the qualities of a nice potboiler that, perhaps, wants to be taken more seriously than it really merits. Still, you can’t deny its entertainment value.

And Raven’s production, under the capable direction of Michael Menendian, brings out most of that entertainment. Despite an annoying tendency to block for full thrust seating (the two side seating units only fill up when the house approaches capacity), Menendian has assembled a very capable cast that only looks a little out-of-place in military garb. The production is grounded by strong a performance by Jose Antonio Garcia in the central role of Kaffee (more irony: Kaffee’s first name is misspelt as Denial in the program). Garcia anchors every scene he’s in and proves equally adept with the early light humor and Kaffee’s more serious transformation as the play goes on. He has very capable foils in Melissa Nedell as Lt. Commander Joanne Galloway, an overly enthusiastic stickler for details, and Greg Caldwell, as the more cynical Sam Weinberg. Nedell, in particular, deserves kudos for navigating a potentially annoying character who is presented as anal retentive, but pushes the case forward with mostly emotionally-based arguments. Finally, Chuck Spencer, as Jessup, lacks some of the natural charisma the character could use, but makes up for it with as nuanced a portrayal as the script will stand for.

I should make it clear that I’ve never seen the movie with Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, and for those who have seen it…well, I’m sure this would be a different experience. Still, this is a solid production, with some excellent Chicago actors doing their thing, and on that basis I’d recommend it.

A Few Good Men—Raven Theatre

Chris Jones, Tribune—“Unfortunately, there’s no particular visual signature or other stylistic innovation to Menendian’s work here. Performances are mixed. Few dangerous risks are taken, and this is a play that needs them. Paul Dunckel is the most credible Marine on the stage and offers the most truthful performance in the tough role of Lt. Kendrick. As the young attorney charged with taking on Jessup, Jose Antonio Garcia offers an eloquent, slick performance. It has its appeal, but some of it feels like tricks, not truth. And as Joanne Galloway, his female sidekick-antagonist, Melissa Nedell has the opposite problem: she’s often too understated to make those scenes really pop.”

Misha Davenport, Sun-Times—“The show contains more than a few good performances. As Lt. Daniel Kaffee…Jose Antonio Garcia finds just the right balance. His character is a bit of a smart aleck, trying to coast through the remainder of his tour before beginning a real law career. He’s funny and likable without ever being annoying. And he shares some terrific chemistry with co-star Melissa Nedell that’s reminiscent of the on-screen love/hate relationship between Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.”

Lawrence Bommer, Reader—“Torture by the military? A cover-up by officers desperate to blame underlings? Soldiers’ religious fervor threatening discipline and decency? Aaron Sorkin (creator of TV’s “The West Wing”) must have written this crackerjack 1987 courtroom drama using a crystal ball. But Sorkin’s courtroom drama—about a lawyer whose lazy sense of ethics and duty is stirred by the attempted cover-up of a young marine’s murder—delivers the rare pleasure of watching corrupt higher-ups face the music. Michael Menendian’s staging crackles in all the right places.”

Louis Weisberg, Free Press—“Jose Antonio Garcia shows us the insecurity beneath the bravado of a man living in the shadow of a famous father, and he gives us something to cheer about as he changes from a man who follows the path of least resistance to a man of conviction… Melissa Nedell makes the most of what is the play’s most thankless role. Paul Dunckel is chilling as the evangelical Lt. Kendrick, a character that could have been based on Lt. Oliver North. Director Michael Menendian has mounted a taut production staged with the discipline and precision becoming its subject matter. In his hands, the entertainment value of the play is never sacrificed for its heady ideas.”

Tim Sauers, Gay Chicago—“Menendian runs a tight outfit, keeping the pacing brisk, the stakes high, assured every step of the way. He washes the production with precise movement and crisp dialogue from his ensemble, providing an appropriate military flavoring to the work. However, not all of his enlisted are up to task. Garcia delivers a solid performance as the wisecracking, softball-playing master of the plea bargain… Nedell, on the other hand, does not… The script requires the two lawyers to spark unsparingly, but the pair’s clashing pales due to Nedell’s rather meek stage presence.”

Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City—“[D]irector Michael Menendian’s goal is not a live-action replication of the film, but a contemplative examination of moral dilemmas facing us today. To this end, he deliberately mutes the temptation to actorly braggadocio to render the characters relentlessly life-sized. Jose Antonio Garcia’s Daniel Kaffee emerges as, not a shallow and self-absorbed WASP, but a minority youth not so different from the victim whose death he must avenge. Chuck Spencer’s Col. Jessep is no fire-snorting monster, but an old man fighting old wars. Melissa Nedell’s feisty Joanne Galloway is downright mousy.”

Crave—side project

Chris Jones, Tribune—“[Director Stephen] Cone creates a laudably intense atmosphere in this little theater, using little more than chairs, orange paint and actors who stare so intently at the audience, you start checking out the emergency exits. Once the four actors finally start to talk, the result is still powerful but more uneven. The main problem on display is that the language—and this is a play with an inestimably complex juxtaposition of words—often gets lost in all the intense emotionalizing. Words are sometimes swallowed, ideas half-expressed, phrases not allowed to float in the air… That said, there is still a lot of talent in the room.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“They are all fierce combatants engaged in brutal psycho-sexual games, some of which are quite graphic. And they are all walking wounded—awash in guilt, shame, revulsion, twisted desire, disconnection. Sounds bleak, and it is. But in Cone’s clockwork-perfect production it is all being rendered with a staggering brilliance—the kind of acting that may just leave you staggering out into the cold night.”

Kelly Kleiman, Reader—“Fragmented dialogue reflects the impossibility of communication; quoting everyone from T.S. Eliot to Alfred Hitchcock, Kane highlights the difficulty of achieving authenticity in a world where everything seems to have been said already. The Side Project presents Crave with unremitting intensity in a space the size of a living room, and director Stephen Cone wrings every drop of meaning from the script and energy from his strong cast. If this piece can be compared to anything, it’s Steppenwolf doing Sam Shepard in the earliest days of both.”

F.O. Almeida, New City—“Crave, with no stage directions or set designations, is carte blanche for the visual stamp of any ambitious director and designer, but that’s precisely what’s missing from The Side Project’s otherwise compelling but curiously unmoving production. Despite the Side Studio’s encompassing and arresting blood-red painted walls, this is mostly an uninspired vision of the haunting Crave, with minimal lighting shifts and unmemorable staging images. More of a moody, literary showcase for Kane’s penetrating dialogue than a visceral theatrical experience, this is a case of a production abundant with a poet’s ear but lacking a painter’s eye.

Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago—“Still the dark and disturbing poetry of Kane’s deadly psychosis, under the fearless and instinctive direction of Stephen Cone, creates a non sequitur tapestry of riveting tension. The often overlapping and potent declarations of despondency are delivered wonderfully, both verbally and nonverbally, by the unflinching cast. Sadie Rogers, John Wilson, Will Schultz and Meagan Alm all produce moments of excellent comedy and relentless conflict with impressive focus and well-managed intensity.”

Rick Reed, Windy City—“Crave doesn’t offer many theatrical precedents. That’s why I admire Steven Marzolf’s amazing, mature, and controlled direction so much. This is a tight, seamless production that is about as close to flawless as I can imagine. There’s not a wasted moment or gesture. To his credit, Marzolf has a quartet of genuine thespian artists to work with: Will Schutz, John Wilson, Sadie Rogers and Elizabeth Hipwell illuminate the aching despair at the heart of Kane’s poetic play without ever being obvious about it.”

Kimberly Akimbo—A Red Orchid Theatre

Chris Jones, Tribune—“How funny you’ll find all this depends on your penchant for black comedy and, frankly, your mood. [Playwright David] Lindsay-Abaire has a lot in common with David Sedaris, the brilliantly self-destructive absurdist who can rock a theater with laughter and then kill a room by making some perversely indulgent misstep. Kimberly Akimbo has some very funny lines. And Shade Murray’s production is better than some—mostly because he has cast the sardonic and talented likes of [Matt] Kozlowski and [Jennifer] Engstrom, who are willing to commit like crazy to the truth of their dumb characters. But the show moves too slowly in places, and it’s only about half way there.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“Kimberly Akimbo, which premiered in 2001, is now being staged by A Red Orchid Theatre, where director Shade Murray (who did such a fine job earlier this year with The Subject Was Roses at Writers’ Theatre) has cast a top-notch group of actors. The performers give the play everything they’ve got—to the point where they almost make a believer of me.”

Nina Metz, New City—“The script is chockablock with plot, so much so that an actual story never emerges. Director Shade Murray is adrift within the playwright’s universe, an ill-conceived construct that force-feeds the audience high doses of wacky in place of anything real. Simply, the show never achieves rhythm. Roslyn Alexander’s vague and foggy performance as Kimberly is particularly troublesome. She is entirely miscast and clearly struggles with the role.”

Jenn Q. Goddu, Free Press—“For the most part, this Red Orchid cast does ground these eccentric characters. Steve Haggard is particularly funny channeling an unhappy nerd. Even when he’s not speaking, we’re drawn to Jeff’s reactions to the craziness around him. Jennifer Engstrom and Mierka Girten are convincing as Kimberly’s aunt and mother… Regrettably it is Roslyn Alexander who is the big disappointment as Kimberly. This Shade Murray-directed play is an entertaining 100 minutes, but there are comic opportunities missed in Alexander’s performance. The actress brings a dry delivery to Kimberly’s more sullen or sarcastic lines, but this grandmotherly woman doesn’t adequately communicate the necessary adolescent awkwardness.”

A Man for All Seasons—TimeLine Theatre Company

Michael Phillips, Tribune—“Director Edward Sobel and his cast, led by David Parkes, give it an honorable go. The stripped-down staging strives for a lean, contemporary look and energy. Scenic designer Brian Sidney Bembridge’s rectangular unit set features a steeply raked ramp heading up into oblivion: This is where More meets his end, under the ax. The cast sticks with American dialects (which sound not quite right), as part of an effort to bring Bolt’s conflicts into our own time. Yet the text proves stubborn… The actors [follow] their instincts to treat these characters as people, not chapters in a history book. But this play is a plodder.”

Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“From the moment the men of the court and the church gather on the stage of TimeLine Theatre—where they beat out an ominous rhythm with their wooden poles in the opening moments of director Edward Sobel’s taut, muscular and very modern rendering of Robert Bolt’s popular play A Man for All Seasons—it is clear that the halls of power resound with a universal ring. Tudor England sounds a great deal like contemporary Washington or The West Wing. Opportunism and political expedience will invariably trump integrity. And those who insist on taking the moral high ground will ultimately pay dearly for such an indulgence.”

Barbara Vitello, Daily Herald—“This welcome reminder of what constitutes moral sense comes courtesy of TimeLine’s lean, intelligent production that hums along under Edward Sobel’s masterful direction. An examination of morality, corruption, individualism, friendship and ambition could border on pedantic, but Bolt uses satire and irony to lighten the tone. A Man for All Seasons instructs, provokes and entertains. The razor-sharp acting includes superb performances from David Parkes, John Carter Brown, Kurt Ehrmann and Mark Richard. Add Brian Sidney Bembridge’s Spartan but artfully designed set and Rachel Anne Healy’s modern-day costumes that hint at 16th-century finery make for a brilliant theater experience.”

Zac Thompson, Reader—“Director Edward Sobel seems to recognize the play’s relevance to our time, when men in power scorn subtlety and the rule of law, when opposition is taken for a lack of patriotism, and when legal arguments are put to no higher use than obfuscation. His staging for TimeLine Theatre Company abandons the stuffy conventions of British period drama… What the play gains in energy it sometimes loses in grandeur. Instead of striking a subtle balance between recounting history and breathing new life into it, Sobel occasionally shifts too far from historical truth. Still, when Parkes does muster the gravity his role requires, this is a stirring, resonant production.”

Nina Metz, New City—“I actually thought I had a tenuous grasp on this period in history, but Bolt situates the play in a narrative no-man’s land. Director Edward Sobel’s efforts don’t exactly clarify matters, nor does David Parkes’ generic performance as More. Parkes is a good actor, but he has a tendency to dip into the same old bag of tricks: a smug, arched eyebrow here, a little restless indignation there. It feels painted on, which is a shame; this particular actor is capable of so much more.”

Lawrence Bommer, Free Press—“Dispensing with any pretense to period, director Edward Sobel takes to heart the universality of the play’s title. Embracing a part that can be exasperatingly passive and even peaceful, David Parkes’ seemingly fearless More seems unperturbed by his imminent demise, even by his distraught family’s plea for him to save his life if not his soul. Indeed Parkes’ sacrifice would seem more human if we could measure its price better than we do. But we certainly feel it in Janet Ulrich Brooks’ rational wife (whose advice to “be ruled’ is doomed to fail) and in Joey Honsa as More’s passionate and proto-feminist daughter Margaret.”

Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago—“Have you ever gone into a home that is truly striking on almost every level, yet you felt that you wouldn’t want to live there? You can appreciate the aesthetic excellence of your surroundings, yet it is so ostentatious that the space is just not comfortable. This is the feeling that I was left with after viewing TimeLine Theatre Company’s gorgeous production of A Man For All Seasons. That is not to say that I was not thoroughly entertained. I was delighted with the play, especially the riveting second act, but I felt less than pleased with the self-important telegraphing of emotions that this dramatically stylized production so pompously delivers.”

Quote of the Fortnight:

“One must beware of any show that paints the kind of audience it would like to have, rather than employing an actual point of view, to win over the more unruly creatures of the present.”—Chris Jones reviewing Boy Friend in the Tribune.